ThingNet: A micro-service based IoT macro-programming platform over edges and cloud

Abstract

The enormous number of things connected to the Internet requires a flexible macro-programming platform to efficiently organize functions and process data. Fog or Edge computing is an emerging architecture to fill the gaps between things and cloud through providing computing, storage and forwarding services close to the end devices. This paper presents ThingNet — a micro-service based macro-programming platform to enable distributed data routing and processing across IoT devices, edges and central cloud. Application providers can deploy, modify, migrate and scale application logic over underlying infrastructures. An application level service function chaining is designed to enable data flow programming. The service functions can be shared by multiple data flows to reduce resource utilisation. The platform is implemented based on open source platforms including Kubernetes and MiNifi. ThingNet has been verified through a proof of concept testbed including Raspberry Pis, Intel NUCs, and Openstack VMs.